Process development of low fat Quarg cheese using fat replacer

Quarg is a sparkling cheese having a smooth texture, barely bitter flavor and is a type of natural un-ripened and clean cheese. Quarg cheese contains more fat and lacks in whey protein which affects its nutritional quality, therefore it is essential to produce low fat quarg cheese using fat replacers. Initially two fat replacers were tried i.e. carragennan and Simplesse-100 @ 0.5 of quarg and after selecting one, its level was optimized. The optimized product was assessed for its storage stability. During investigation cheese was analyzed for its sensory, physico-chemical and microbial analysis. Maximum score was awarded to the quarg cheese prepared using 0.5 per cent Simplesse-100 when added to quarg after removal of whey. The superior product contained 0.62±0.03, 12.68±0.08, 3.33±0.02, 1.32±0.04, 17.87±0.02% fat, protein, lactose, ash and total solids, respectively whereas, its pH was 4.36±0.06. During the storage, there were significant (p<0.05) differences in change in all the sensory qualities, proximate composition of fat replacer added quarg cheese.